1. Title, Journal and Authors
Title: Mass transport of various membrane configurations in pressure retarded osmosis
Journal: Journal of Membrane Science
Authors: Zhen Lei Chenga, Tai-Shung Chunga,*
a. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117585, Singapore
2. Summary
For the first time, a set of analytical PRO models has been derived to describe the mass transport of various membrane configurations including FS, single- and double-skinned HFs. This provides a universal platform to evaluate the existing state-of-the-art PRO membranes
1 )For the single-skinned configuration, dramatic differences exist between the FS and HF models when describing a membrane with the same support layer thickness but various curvatures. However, this does not negate the validity of applying the classic FS model to quantify the mass transport across HF membranes.
2) For the double-skinned HF membrane with the draw-on-lumen configuration, the outer protective skin is found to deform to some degree by the expansion of HF under high pressure PRO processes. Even so, this membrane experimentally shows superior antifouling performance than other reported ones in the literature. By modelling the foulant build-up as an external cake layer on top of the protective skin, one can mathematically confirm the advantages of double-skinned configuration in terms of minimal flux decline and lower transport resistance when fouling occurs.
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